Meadowlark Lemon

CTL-E-6968 · Person · other · 1932–2015

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07840 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6968.

Meadowlark Lemon, born Meadow George Lemon III on April 25, 1932, in Wilmington, North Carolina, was the 'Clown Prince of Basketball' and the defining star of the Harlem Globetrotters for more than two decades. A boyhood fan of the team, he applied in 1954 at age 22 after serving in the U.S. Army, began with the Kansas City Stars developmental squad, and succeeded Goose Tatum as the team's featured clown in 1955. From the center of the Globetrotters' Magic Circle, Lemon ran the show with half-court hook shots, no-look passes, and comic patter that made him a global ambassador for the game; obituaries credit him with playing in more than 16,000 games for the team. The Globetrotters retired his number 36, one of only a handful of numbers the team has retired. Ordained as a Christian minister in 1986, he founded Meadowlark Lemon Ministries in Scottsdale, Arizona, in 1994 with his wife, Cynthia Lemon. He received the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame's John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2000 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2003. He died on December 27, 2015, in Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 83.

The record

• Also known as: Meadow George Lemon III, Meadow Lemon, Meadowlark Lemon III, The Clown Prince of Basketball

Notes

Founder-directed addition, 2026-11-03 (Globetrotters packet; not drawn from the roster pool). FIRSTS/SUPERLATIVES DISPOSITION: 'Clown Prince of Basketball' is carried as his billed title (multiple obituaries); the 16,000-games figure is carried in its attributed form ('obituaries credit him with') because it originates in team publicity; no unqualified 'greatest' claim is asserted. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): Lemon is the Globetrotter the television age made world-famous — a Black showman-athlete who headlined a Chicago institution on every continent; his record anchors the team's post-integration era.

Relationships

• Harlem Globetrotters — played for
  Meadowlark Lemon applied to the Globetrotters in 1954, began with the Kansas City Stars developmental team, joined the Globetrotters in 1954 and succeeded Goose Tatum as featured clown in 1955; he starred for over two decades and returned for a 50-game farewell season in 1993.

Sources

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Meadowlark Lemon," Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Meadowlark-Lemon — accessed 2026-11-03. (primary source · build store)
• Black Enterprise, "Harlem Globetrotters Star Meadowlark Lemon Passes Away at 83," December 28, 2015. https://www.blackenterprise.com/harlem-globetrotters-star-meadowlark-lemon-passes-away-at-83/ — accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
• African American Registry, "Meadowlark Lemon, Basketball Player, and Minister born." https://aaregistry.org/story/meadowlark-lemon-born/ — accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)
• The Guardian, "Meadowlark Lemon obituary," December 2015 (reposted at richardhartley.com). http://www.richardhartley.com/2015/12/meadowlark-lemon-obituary/ — accessed 2026-11-03. (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6968 · Combined Graph record U-07840 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 4 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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